Battle of Forum Gallorum
43 BC Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces loyal to the Roman Senate under consul Gaius Pansa, who is killed
- 69 First Battle of Bedriacum: Supporters of Vitellius defeat supporters of Otho between Bedriacum and Cremona in Northern Italy
- 627 Anglo-Saxon king Edwin of Northumbria converts to Christianity, baptized by Paulinus, Bishop of York at York (as told by Bede)
- 754 Pact of Quierzy: Pope Stephen II and Pepin de Korte, King of France confirm support of previous peace treaties between Romans and Lombards, and lay groundwork for establishment of the Papal States
- 966 Polish ruler Mieszko I and his court are baptized, leading to the Christianization of Poland
- 972 Benedictine monk Notger is elected Bishop of Liège
- 978 Ethelred II crowned King of England at 10 years old, after the murder of his half brother Edward, possibly arranged by his mother
- 979 Challenge to the throne of King Æthelred II of England
- 1191 85-year-old Giacinto Bobo becomes Pope Celestine III
- 1341 Manfred V of Saluzzo leads Italian-Angevine troops in the Sack of Saluzzo, Italy
- 1361 Henry of Grosmont, the richest peer in England, is buried at the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of Newarke, Leicester, with the royal family in attendance
- 1434 The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid
- 1471 Wars of the Roses, Battle of Barnet: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians and kill the Earl of Warwick
Dissolution of the Monasteries
1536 English King Henry VIII expropriates minor monasteries
Battle of Mookerheyde
1574 Battle of Mookerheyde: Spanish forces of D'Avila defeat Dutch mercenary force led by Louis of Nassau
- 1611 The word "telescope" is first used by Prince Federico Cesi
- 1629 England and France sign Peace of Susa
- 1671 Cossacks capture Russian peasant leader Stenka Razin
- 1699 Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar
- 1756 Governor Glen of South Carolina protests against 900 Acadia indians
- 1775 First US abolitionist society, Pennsylvania Abolition Society, is organized in Philadelphia
- 1818 US Medical Corps forms
- 1828 British 18-gun sloop HMS Acorn sinks off Halifax with 115 men aboard
American Dictionary of the English Language
1828 Noah Webster registers the copyright for the publication of the first American dictionary titled "An American Dictionary of the English Language"
- 1836 US Congress forms Territory of Wisconsin
1st Detective Story
1841 Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is the first detective story published [April 1841]
John Brown Meets Harriet Tubman
1858 Abolitionist John Brown meets Harriet Tubman at a Constitutional Convention convened in Chatham, Ontario
Pony Express
1860 First Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco from St Joseph, Missouri
Battle of Fort Sumter
1861 Formal Union surrender of Fort Sumter (US Civil War)
Assassination Attempt on William Seward
1865 U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell as part of the same conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln
Deadly Performance of a Twisted Actor
1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington; he dies a day later
- 1868 South Carolina voters approve the constitution, 70,758 to 27,228
- 1871 Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, and mils
- 1872 Bar Association of San Francisco is established
- 1872 Dominion Lands Act passed: Canada's Homestead Act
- 1881 The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight in El Paso, Texas.
- 1883 Leo Delibes' opera "Lakmé" premieres with the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart in Paris, France
- 1890 Pan American Day: Delegates create the International Union of American Republics
Edison's Kinetoscope
1894 First public showing of Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope (moving pictures)
- 1896 US Patent Office issues Patent No. 558,393 to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan, for "flaked cereal, and process of making same"
The Golden Rule Store
1902 James Cash Penney opens his first store, The Golden Rule Store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming
Chesbro's 1st Win
1904 NY Highlanders' future Baseball HOF pitcher Jack Chesbro's first of 41 wins this season; pitches complete game and beats Boston Americans, 8-2 at Hilltop Park, NYC
Roosevelt Denounces the Muckrakers
1906 US President Theodore Roosevelt denounces "muckrakers" in US press, taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
Taft's First Pitch
1910 US President William Howard Taft begins the tradition of throwing the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day of the baseball season at National Park in Washington, D.C.
Titanic Hits Iceberg
1912 RMS Titanic, the world's largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11:40pm off Newfoundland and sinks in the early hours of April 15
- 1915 Dutch merchant ship Katwijk is sunk by German submarine SM UB-10
- 1915 Philadelphia Athletics' Herb Pennock is within one out of pitching the first Opening Day no-hitter
- 1915 Turkey invades Armenia
- 1917 Chicago White Sox pitcher Ed Cicotte no-hits St Louis Browns, 11-0
- 1918 Douglas Campbell becomes the first US ace pilot after shooting down his fifth German plane
- 1921 Netherlands Prince Henry opens the Rotterdam-Amsterdam-Bremen-Hamburg air route
- 1922 Irish Republican Army rebels occupy the Four Courts (government buildings) in Dublin
- 1923 Étienne Oehmichen sets the first helicopter world record of 360 meters
- 1925 First regular-season Chicago Cubs game broadcast on radio (WGN) by caller Quin Ryan; Cubs beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2
- 1927 The first Volvo car is produced in Gothenburg, Sweden
- 1928 Maddux Air Lines starts the first regular passenger flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles
- 1928 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: In only their 2nd season in the NHL, New York Rangers beat Montreal Maroons, 2-1 for a 3-2 series win
- 1930 Philip Barry's play "Hotel Universe" premieres in NYC
Second Spanish Republic
1931 Spain becomes a republic with the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
Stanley Cup Final
1931 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0 for a 3-2 series win; Canadiens' back-to-back Championships
Jeux d'Enfants
1932 Léonide Massine and Joan Miró's adaptation for dance of Georges Bizet's "Jeux d'Enfants" premieres with the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Édith Piaf Under Suspicion
1936 French singer Édith Piaf questioned after nightclub owner and her patron Louis Leplée murdered in Paris
- 1937 Don Buchla, American musical instrument designer (Buchla modular synthesizer), and engineer, born in South Gate, California (d. 2016)
The Grapes of Wrath
1939 John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" is published
US Decrypt Yamamoto Plans
1943 American intelligence intercepts and decrypts a JN-25 message detailing a forthcoming visit by Japanese Navy Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to Balalae Airfield near Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, resulting in his plane being shot down four days later [1]
Assault on Tunis
1943 Generals Alexander, Eisenhower, Anderson, and Bradley discuss assault on Tunis
- 1943 James Gow and Arnaud d'Usseau's play "Tomorrow the World" premieres in NYC
- 1944 Freighter "Fort Stikine" explodes in Bombay, India, killing 1,376 people
- 1944 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force
- 1944 Greek Colonel Venizelos forms government
- 1945 American planes bomb Tokyo and damage the Imperial Palace
- 1945 US Marines attack Yae-Take, the tallest mountain on Okinawa's Motobu Peninsula
- 1945 World War II: US 7th Army and Allied forces capture Nuremberg and Stuttgart in Germany
- 1948 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Toronto Maple Leafs go back-to-back with a 7-2 win over Detroit Red Wings for a 4-0 series sweep
- 1948 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll
- 1949 International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg's last judgment
- 1950 Doorne's Auto factory (DAF) opens in Netherlands
- 1950 First issue of British comic "Eagle" releases
- 1953 Viet Minh launches an offensive in Upper Laos
- 1953 WHYN (now WGGB) TV channel 40 in Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1954 Soviet KGB officer Vladimir Petrov requests political asylum in Canberra, Australia
Sports History
1955 26-year-old catcher/outfielder Elston Howard becomes the first African-American to play for the New York Yankees; hits single with 1 RBI in 8-4 loss to Boston Red Sox
- 1955 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Detroit Red Wings win back-to-back titles; beat Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 for a 4-3 series victory
- 1955 WBRZ TV channel 2 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Ampex demonstrates the VRX-1000, the first commercial videotape recorder, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention
- 1957 Leah Neuberger wins her 8th women's ping pong Singles Championship
Space Dog Laika Launched to her Death
1958 Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2, carrying space dog Laika, burns up during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere
- 1959 (Robert) Taft Memorial Bell Tower dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 1959 KDIN TV channel 11 in Des Moines, Iowa (PBS) begins broadcasting
Motown Founded
1960 American record company Motown, founded by Berry Gordy Jr, is incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan
- 1960 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Montreal Canadiens beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-0 for a 4 game sweep; 5th consecutive title
- 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion: Cuban-American invasion fleet departs from Nicaragua for Cuba
- 1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, is added to the periodic table
- 1961 First live television broadcast from the Soviet Union
- 1962 Demonstration for sovereign status of New Guinea in Amsterdam
Election of Interest
1962 Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France after the resignation of Michel Debré
TV Show Appearance
1963 Italian puppet Topo Gigio appears on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time
Music History
1963 Quiet Beatle George Harrison is impressed by unsigned British blues band "Rolling Stones"
Baseball History
1964 LA Dodgers' future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his 9th complete game without allowing a walk in 4-0 Opening Day win over St. Louis Cardinals
- 1965 US conducts a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
1967 General Gnassingbé Eyadéma becomes President of Togo
- 1968 First NBA game at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden; NY Knicks beat San Diego Rockets, 114-102
Academy Awards
1969 41st Academy Awards: "Oliver", Cliff Robertson & Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand win (1st ever tie for best actress)
- 1969 First regular-season MLB game played outside the United States; Montreal Expos beat St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 at Parc Jarry, Montreal
- 1969 KEET TV channel 13 in Eureka, California (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1969 Student Afro-American Society members are seized at Columbia College
- 1969 Tornado strikes Dhaka, East Pakistan, killing 540 people
- 1971 Fort Point, San Francisco, is dedicated as a national historic site
Nixon Lifts China Blockade
1971 US President Richard Nixon ends blockade against People's Republic of China
Event of Interest
1976 Apple I computer is demonstrated by designer Steve Wozniak to the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California; club member Steve Jobs suggests forming a company together to sell the product
- 1977 US Supreme Court says people may refuse to display state motto on license
- 1978 David Hare's play "Plenty" premieres in London
- 1978 Thousands of Georgians demonstrate in the capital Tbilisi against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language
- 1978 WRR-AM in Dallas, Texas, changes call letters to KAAM
- 1979 Susan Horvath of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is crowned America's Young Woman of the Year
Academy Awards
1980 52nd Academy Awards: Best Picture "Kramer vs Kramer", Dustin Hoffman & Sally Field win
- 1980 First Cubans of the Mariel boatlift sail to Florida
Pulitzer Prize
1980 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is awarded to Norman Mailer for "The Executioner's Song"
- 1981 The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, returns to Earth after 2 days and 6 hours in space
Let's Dance
1983 EMI America Records releases David Bowie's 15th studio album, "Let's Dance"; co-produced by Bowie and Nile Rodgers, it becomes his biggest commercial success with sales of nearly 11 million units, topping the charts in 9 countries, and introduces guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan to a larger audience
- 1983 New York Islanders tie own record with 2 shorthanded playoff goals vs. the New York Rangers
Reagan Rescues Social Security
1983 US President Ronald Reagan signs $165 billion Social Security rescue
- 1984 Farewell concert of Dutch pop-ska band Doe Maar at Maasport in Den Bosch, Netherlands
- 1985 Alan García of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance wins the Peruvian general election
- 1985 Bob Carpenter is unsuccessful on Washington Capitals 1st playoff penalty shot
- 1985 Hussein Ahmed Salah wins the inaugural IAAF World Marathon Cup with a time of 2:08:09
- 1985 Jack C. Burcham is 5th to receive "Jarvik 7" permanent artificial heart
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
1986 Desmond Tutu elected Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa
- 1987 Turkey applies for membership to join the European Economic Community (now European Union)
- 1988 NHL playoffs: New Jersey Devils win 6-5 over NY Islanders to take 1st round 4-2
- 1988 USSR, US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan sign the Geneva Accords
- 1989 The 1,100,000,000th person in China is born
- 1991 Chicago Blackhawks become the first NHL regular season champion in 20 years to lose in 1st round of the playoffs (against Minnesota North Stars)
- 1992 United Auto Workers end five-month strike against Caterpillar Inc.
- 1992 US court throws out Apple Computer's lawsuit against Microsoft Corp
- 1993 Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender after completion of his Seven Seals manuscript, but gives no timeline
- 1994 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is operated on for a bleeding ulcer
- 1994 New Jersey Devils end season with one of their best results in franchise history, achieving a 47-25-12 record for 106 points
Turner Classic Movies
1994 Turner Classic Movies cable channel launches; media mogul Ted Turner hosts ceremony in NYC's Times Square district at 6PM marking "the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City"
- 1994 US F-15 fighters accidentally shoot down two US Army helicopters over Iraq, killing all 26 military personnel and civilians aboard
- 1995 India defeats Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in Sharjah to win its fourth Asia Cricket Cup
- 1996 Detroit Red Wings finish the NHL season with an all-time record of 62 wins
- 1999 A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia, causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history
- 1999 NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees; Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed
US Masters Golf
2002 66th US Masters Tournament: Tiger Woods becomes the third player to claim back-to-back Masters, three strokes ahead of Retief Goosen of South Africa
Return of Hugo Chávez
2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military
- 2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%
- 2003 U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985
- 2005 The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County
Anti-Erdoğan Protest
2007 At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey, protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- 2010 Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull begins erupting from the top crater in the center of the glacier
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2012 27th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Beastie Boys, Donovan, Guns N' Roses, Laura Nyro, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The (Small) Faces, The Blue Caps, The Comets, The Crickets, The Famous Flames, The Midnighters, The Miracles, Freddie King, Don Kirshner, Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns, and Cosimo Matassa
Pottermore
2012 J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, launches her website "Pottermore"
- 2013 11 people are killed and 50 are injured after a hotel fire in Xiangyang, China
- 2013 20 people are killed in attacks in Mogadishu, Somalia
- 2013 33 people are killed after a bus tumbled off a cliff in Trujillo, Peru
- 2013 Comedian Kevin Hart is arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in California
Trudeau Elected Liberal Leader
2013 Justin Trudeau, son of long-serving Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, is elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
- 2015 Archaeologists announce they have found 3.3 million-year-old stone tools at Lomekwi in Kenya, the oldest ever discovered and predating the earliest humans
The Fate of the Furious
2017 "The Fate of the Furious," directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Vin Diesel and The Rock, opens worldwide with the highest-grossing weekend at $532 million
DAMN.
2017 Kendrick Lamar releases his fourth studio album "DAMN." (2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music)
- 2017 Meethotamulla rubbish dump collapses onto houses in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 26 people
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2018 33rd Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Nina Simone; Sister Rosetta Tharpe; Bon Jovi; The Cars; Dire Straits; and Moody Blues
- 2018 National Gardening Day has been celebrated since 2018 according to the National Day Calendar
- 2018 US, UK, and French forces carry out airstrikes on sites associated with Syria's chemical weapons program in response to the Douma gas attack
- 2019 11 tornadoes hit US southern states, killing eight in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana
Ilhan Omar Controversy
2019 Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at center of controversy over comments about 9/11 at speech to Council on American-Islamic Relations after tweet by Donald Trump, defended by Nancy Pelosi
- 2019 Seychelles President Danny Faure makes first-ever live speech from a submersible pleading for better marine protection
- 2019 South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg officially announces his presidential campaign in Indiana, first openly gay candidate to run for US president
Obama Endorses Biden
2020 Former President Barack Obama endorses his former Vice President Joe Biden for president
- 2020 IMF warns the global economy is expected to contract by 3% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 'Great Lockdown', the steepest downturn since the Great Depression
- 2020 Parts of Europe begin to ease lockdown restrictions after 5-6 weeks with some shops opening in Austria and parts of Italy
Modi Extends Lockdown
2020 PM Narendra Modi extends India's COVID-19 lockdown until May 3
- 2020 US President Donald Trump freezes funding for the World Health Organization pending a review of mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and for being "China-centric," prompting international criticism
- 2021 Chicago White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodón no-hits the Cleveland Indians, 8-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago
- 2021 Coinbase becomes the first major cryptocurrency company to trade shares on the New York Stock Exchange
- 2021 Former Minnesota police officer who shot Daunte Wright with a gun instead of a taser is arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter
- 2021 Human cells grown in monkey cells for 20 days reported by US-Chinese team at the Salk Institute in "Cell" [1]
- 2022 Russian ship Moskva, flagship of its Black Sea fleet, sinks in the Black Sea during the invasion of Ukraine amid conflicting accounts [1]
- 2022 The biggest surge in years of attacks by Arab militants in Israel leaves 14 dead, leading to Israel army operations that kill a further 20 [1]
- 2023 European Space Agency's mission to Jupiter's moons, the Juice satellite launches on an Ariane-5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana [1]
- 2023 Royal Bank of Canada named the world's largest financier of fossil fuels, bypassing JPMorgan, according to the Banking on Climate Chaos report by a group of environmental organizations [1]
- 2024 British Columbia signs historic Gaayhllxid • Gíhlagalgang “Rising Tide” agreement recognizing Haida Gwaii's Aboriginal title over more than 200 islands off Canada’s west coast [1]
